Question

How are CTP and UTP derived from UMP?

Short answer

The synthesis of CTP from UTP is as follows:

$UTP+Glutamine+ATP+H_{2}O\underset{CTPsynthase}{\to }CTP+Glutamate+ADP+P_i$

The synthesis of UTP from UMP is as follows:

Step-by-step solution

Pyrimidines

Pyrimidines are a type of nitrogenous bases used to form deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). The bases included in this category are uracil, thymine, and cytosine.

Synthesis of UTP from UMP

The nucleotide uridine triphosphate is synthesized from uridine monophosphate in two enzymatic steps. These steps are as follows:

Synthesis of CTP from UTP

The synthesis of cytidine triphosphate (CTP) occurs from UTP in one enzymatic step, which is:

$UTP+Glutamine+ATP+H_{2}O\underset{CTPsynthase}{\to }CTP+Glutamate+ADP+P_i$